


Parabola

by RiYuYami



Series: Lateralus [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: AU events in the future mixed with canon, Bill Cipher Being Bill Cipher, Bipper, Gen, Mystery Trio, Mystery Twins, Original Mystery Twins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-03-17 07:44:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3521123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiYuYami/pseuds/RiYuYami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'We barely remember what came before this precious moment, choosing to be here right now. Hold on, stay inside… This body holding me, reminding me that I’m not alone in, this body makes me feel eternal. All this pain is an illusion...'</p><p>Dipper had a strange, forgotten dream of a grayscale world, inhabited by a one eyed being when he was a child. Years later, he will meet him, and even then, the dream never ends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I finally caved and decided to write Gravity Falls fanfiction, hahaha. And look, its Dipper and Bill, how original. (Nah, I adore the pairing, even if it’s horrible, but so are most of the pairings I like) 
> 
> The title and the lyrics in the summery are from Parabola, by Tool.

**_Zh eduhob uhphpeu zkl lu zkdw fwph ehiluh fklv suhflrxv plphqw_ **

 

\--

Opening your eyes, you’re surprised that you’re not looking up at your dark bedroom ceiling, covered in glow-in-the-dark stars that Mabel got you for your fourth birthday. No, instead you are looking at gray clouds against the backdrop of an even darker gray sky.

You don’t remember falling asleep outside, you remember reading a scary stories collection book with Mabel before Dad told you it was time for bed. Sitting up, you find yourself sitting in an odd place, where everything is gray. You think Mabel would have a fit if she were to see all of this lack of color.  
  
Glancing down, you find that you’re sitting on a perfectly smooth surface, again, gray in color. You touch it with your bare hands, surprised to find that it’s not cold or hot. It feels like when you put your hand on another person’s arm, a neutral, normal temperature.  
  
Standing up, you look around. There is no sound but the soft paps of your bare feet on the smooth surface as you walk around. “Hello?” You call out, walking towards… what you assume to be the horizon of this place.  
  
Your voice doesn’t echo, you hear nothing, it’s like you didn’t just yell at all.

Frowning, you continue on until you come to the end. Literally, you are now standing over the edge. Getting down on your knees, you lean down and look under what you’ve been walking on. It’s a floating disk, from what you can tell, and beneath you are hundreds more.

However, you notice one of the disks down below has some sort of pattern on it. It’s hard to tell from where you are and you lean in a little closer.

Big mistake, you tip over too far and fall. You scream, but it’s not like anyone can hear you. Great, this is how you’re going to die, falling into the gray abyss. You’ll never get to see your tenth birthday, you’ll never get that awesome cryptozoology book you saw the other day, you’ll never tell Mabel that you broke her seventh favorite video tape (not that you were going to tell her that anyway). 

Looking down, you see you’re about to crash into the disk you were looking at with the marking. You close your eyes, waiting for the impact, but… it never happens. Opening your eyes, you gasp.

You’re hovering over the disk and it’s glowing. The symbols on it are of a triangle with what appears to be arms and legs, and a large eyeball in the center of it. Around it is a circle made up of symbols: a star, a six-fingered hand, a llama, a shooting star, a heart, glasses, a question mark, what looks to be a bag of ice, you’re not sure what that weird moon-fish thing is, and a pine tree.  
  
And the pine tree is glowing blue.   
  
You gently land on the triangle, looking around surprised. But surprise turns to fear when you hear someone laughing in a strange, echo-y voice.  
  
_“So, this is the Pine Tree, I’ve been waiting for you.”_  
  
You feel as if ice cold water just flowed up your spine as you glance down at the triangle under your feet. It was staring at you and it was glowing gold. You yelp and back off of it, standing on the glowing pine tree as the triangle started to rise from the disk, blinding you for a moment in a flash of light.

Opening your eyes, you see a small triangle hovering just a few feet from you, with black arms and legs, a black bow tie, and a black hat. It is looking right at you. _“Well, aren’t you going to say hello? Rude, coming into my realm and not even offering to say hello or thank me for saving you, humans are such selfish beings.”_

“You… saved me?”  
  
_“Yes I did, you were falling and would have went SPLAT! And then in the real world, you would have died from such a traumatic dream death, and to be honest, I can’t have you die right now.”_  
  
You stare at this… thing, it is moving closer to you. “Who are you…?”  
  
_“Now is not the time for me to be telling you my name, Pine Tree.”_ It says, swinging around a cane it suddenly had. _“Gonna let you in on a little secret, boy.”_  
  
“What secret..?” You ask, stepping back as it got closer to your face. You were standing at the edge as it was suddenly right there, right in front of you.  
  
_“You are one of ten people who will help me control this world. In three years time, in a town with the highest amount of paranormal energy, where something terrible and amazing was made, I will return to the human world and the ten symbols will be united.”_  
  
All the symbols glowed blue, as if lit up in a cold fire, if that was even possible. You turn back to look at the triangle thing. It has no mouth, but if it did, you knew it would be smiling so much it would probably hurt.  
  
_“And when that day happens, everything you will know and will have learned during that faithful summer will be tested. Protect the ones you love, but remember, trust no one, for they will turn on you when you need them the most.”_  
  
And with that, it shoves you off the edge.  
  
As you fall, trying to scream but nothing comes out; you hear its voice echo in your head.

 

 _I will be watching you, Dipper. I will always be watching you._  
  
\-- 

You sit up with a start, the sudden movement makes you dizzy and your vision black out. When it comes back, you look up, seeing the glow-in-the-dark stars on your ceiling. You blink, looking around. You’re in your room; your sister is over in her bed, sleeping soundly with a stuffed pig and dog-bunny hybrid in her arms. You think she mumbles something about a prince smooching her, but it’s hard to tell since her face is pressed into her toys.  
  
Getting up from bed, you walk to the bathroom across the hall and turn on the lights, blinded for a moment until your eyes adjust. You clean your face off with cold water and look at your reflection. What was that dream? You can… barely remember it now, actually.

You sort of remember gray being a major color from it, and gold, but that’s it. Uhg, it was just a dream, nothing more, nothing less. You rub your eyes a bit, noticing something behind you in your reflection, a strange shadow with what looks like a big eye in the middle…

“Hnn!” Turning around, you see nothing but the towel rack and the weird bathroom decals that Mabel had found two years ago. You stand alone, hearing only the dripping of water from the faucet. You shake your head and turn off the lights, heading back to your room. You must still be tired, you’re seeing things.  
  
Stepping into the room, your twin mumbles something in her sleep again and giggles a little. You ignore her and crawl under the sheets, closing your eyes, drifting back into the warm, blissful darkness of sleep.

Though you won’t remember this at all in the morning, you swear that as your mind goes into sleep mode, you hear something laughing.

_Always watching…_

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**_Gsivv bvzih ozgvi…_ **

You can honestly say you never suspected that your summer in Oregon at your great-uncle’s place would result in… well… dealing with the supernatural practically every day since you got there. And more then half the time, it was happening when you weren’t even looking for trouble!

You’ve been here for over a week and you’re up late with the journal, Mabel is downstairs, tormenting Stan with some speech about how he should decorate some of his attractions with glitter. You know he’ll say no but he’ll let her throw glitter on something that might bring in more money if it seems like it ‘sparkles unnaturally’.  
  
Well, that’s what happened the other day when she was talking about stickers with him.  
  
Flipping a page in the journal, you take notes on a notepad about something on it, might look into finding some faeries, though the book says you’re gonna have to get some needle nose pliers and three bottles of lemon juice to help you fight them. After writing this down, you flip through a few more pages and stop on two, splattered in spots of what looks to be blood.

There was a strange drawing on one of the pages, black in color, of a triangle thing with what looks to be an eye…  
  
_Always watching…_

You twitch and slam the book close.

What… was that? You swore you just heard someone speak. But it was as if they said it in your head, like, deep within your mind, in your subconscious.  
  
Slipping off the bed, you head down to the kitchen for a drink. Reaching into the fridge to grab a can of Pitt, Mabel runs in. “Hey Dipper! Grunkle Stan says I can throw glitter on some of his ‘alien’ exhibits!” She was grinning before it turned into a frown. “How come you’re as white as a ghost?”  
  
“I… uh, felt really uncomfortable for a moment while looking at the journal.”  
  
“Did you see a weird drawing or something?” She asks as she opens the fridge to get two cans of soda, probably one for Stan and the other for herself.  
  
“I did, I looked at a picture and just… felt like someone spoke inside of my brain.”

“Wouldn’t that be your own brain talking to you?”  
  
You shake your head. “No, it was this voice, I feel like I’ve heard it before, but I don’t remember when or where.”  
  
Mabel raises an eyebrow, tilting her head like a confused puppy. “What’d it say?”  
  
“It said ‘Always watching’, but I don’t know what that means.”  
  
“Could be anything!” She yells, throwing her hands in the air. “Could be a mental note from your own brain to always watch some show, or maybe it could be some crazy brain worm saying subliminal messages to you to confuse you!”  
  
You just look at her.  
  
Mabel shrugs at your blank expression. “Hey, in this town, it could really be either one.”  
  
“Good point. Hm, I might have to look into it, but for now, I really don’t want to think about that voice again.” You say as you head out of the kitchen, going back upstairs. You set your soda down on the nightstand when you enter the bedroom and pick up the journal.  
  
You stare at the shiny, six fingered hand on the cover with the big number three on it, wondering why that happened when you looked at that page. You shrug and set the book aside, cleaning everything else off your bed as you get under the blanket.  
  
You close your eyes, only to open them again and things are just… off, horribly off.  
  
All around you is destruction and the smell of burning. You stare in shock at the burnt trees and what looks to be the charred bodies of creatures you’ve encountered or have seen in the book.  
  
“Oh my gosh…” You walk slowly, the smell of burning wood and flesh is hurting your nose, the smoke is stinging your eyes and throat. You walk into a familiar clearing, shocked to see the Mystery Shack broken apart, something is glowing from within the carnage.  
  
Around the remains is a circle with patterns, with figures floating over them in blue flames. You recognize several of them, oh God! It’s Stan and Wendy, and even Gideon! There are others, though it’s hard to tell, but one of them is obviously your sister.  
  
“Aaah! Oh no, what’s going on!?” You yell, running towards the circle, stepping into it and through the blue flames. They don’t hurt; they feel like a chilly breeze with electric energy pulsing through them. You try to step away from them, but you realize that you’re stuck, like your feet are being held to the ground by some unseen force.

Looking down, you see that you are standing on a glowing symbol, of the tree on your hat.  
  
_“And the Pine Tree makes a full circle.”_

Oh God, it’s the voice, the voice again. You glance at the people around you, they seem to have noticed your arrival.  
  
Stan turns his head towards your direction, and you’re about to ask him what’s happening, but his eyes… oh god!

His eyes are blank! They are nothing but white, like looking into the eyes of the dead!

There’s a strange mark on his forehead, it looks like the mark on his fez cap. Behind him, Wendy’s eyes are the same, a weird glowing mark on her own forehead. You can bet your journal that Gideon and the others in the circle are the same.  
  
Your great uncle tilts his head down, ‘looking’ at you with those eyes, you can see yourself in his eyes and you look horrified.  
  
“Dipper… stop him, save us…” Stan says in a monotone voice.  
  
“S-Stop who?! Stan, what is going on!?”  
  
“Too late…” Another voice says, from somewhere in the circle, you don’t know this voice, but he is close, and you feel like he will be of great importance later. “He has the tenth symbol…”  
  
You feel something cold touch your face, like the hands of the dead. All you see are blue flames bursting up in front of you and they send electric pulses up your body, oh God! It feels like you’re being burned from the inside!

You hear laughing, coming from deep inside your mind, from your own mouth, as your vision blurs out and a burning sensation forms a pattern on your forehead.

 _“Welcome to the club, Pine Tree, I’ve been waiting for you.”_  
  
“DIPPER!”  
  
\--  
  
Your eyes shoot open and you’re staring into the eyes of your worried sister. “Mabel..?”

“Oh Dipper!” She hugs you tightly, making it hard to breathe. “Dipper, you were talking in your sleep, and then you were screaming and thrashing about!”  
  
Mabel looks so scared, so very scared, you haven’t scared her with a nightmare this bad since that time you dreamed of the house burning down with your sister and parents inside of it.  
  
You hear thumping and the door opens, Stan comes in with a flashlight, shining it about. “What’s going on? Why are you both screaming?” He exclaims, sounding both angry from having been woken up suddenly and very worried.  
  
“Grunkle Stan! Dipper was having a nightmare and he wouldn’t wake up until I screamed into his ear!”  
  
Stan points the flashlight at your face, hurting your eyes. “Is this true, kid?” He asks, walking over.  
  
“Yeah… but it was just a bad dream, no big deal.” You say, sounding embarrassed. You don’t want to sound weak in front of Stan; you know he’ll make fun of you for that. He does it all the time.  
  
He’s looking at you, with real eyes, not those terrifying blank ones. “Dipper, if you’re having a really awful dream, tell me or your sister. It ain’t good to keep that stuff bottled up. It’ll mess with ya, screw up your mind. Believe me; nightmares should not be taken lightly.”  
  
You look at him, confused, not sure what to make of that. But his expression is soft, he doesn’t look like he’ll be poking fun at you, in fact, he looks nervous, serious, still worried for your well being.  
  
“Okay, Stan, I’ll do that.” You tell him and he nods, patting your shoulder.  
  
“So, what was it you were freaking out about?”  
  
You open your mouth, ready to tell them, but suddenly you realize, you remember nothing from the dream except his blank eyes and the pain you felt in the dream, it felt so real. “I can’t… really remember. But you had pure white eyes and blue fire electrocuted me.”

The hand on your shoulder's grip is tighter now, it actually hurts. A look crosses Stan’s face, but it’s gone before you can tell what it is. “Best to let your mind forget that, kid. Best to not recall such dreams.”  
  
With that, he leaves the room with a good night, leaving you alone with your twin.  
  
“Dipper, was that what really happened?” She asks you, she still looks so upset and you pull her close for a hug, which you know will make her feel a bit better.  
  
“Yeah, I can’t remember it anymore, and I’m glad for that.”  
  
The two of you pull away and she nods, saying that she’ll wake you up if she hears anymore screaming. You thank her and try to go back to sleep, though you’re not sure if you’ll be able to now…  
  
TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, wow, gonna be honest, I wasn’t expecting anyone to even notice this story. Thanks for the love, this is my first time ever writing for this series. 
> 
> Next chapter I’m gonna do Dreamscaperers (my favorite episode), I would have done it this chapter, but I wanted to do another establishing chapter, this time in Gravity Falls. (By the way, I’m obviously making up what Bill will do once he allows his plans to happen, but if something like this happens in canon, I’ll eat my own hat. And of course laugh my ass off cause I was right.)


	3. Chapter 3

**_25-5-1-18-19  9-14  20-8-5  16-1-19-20,  2-21-20  14-15-20  13-1-14-25_**  

I can hear his snickering, his taunting laugh sounds like it’s coming from somewhere in the distance, but at the same time, it sounds as if it is right by my ear. Fiddleford can’t hear him, but he believes me when I tell him that the bastard is keeping an eye on the two of us while we work.  
  
Fiddleford is getting worried, antsy, like he might jump ship at any moment. But he won’t, he’s a good man, but the pressure is getting to him. I understand, I’m not exactly the most relaxed guy in the universe either. At least he doesn’t have to worry about being part of the circle; the devil in a top hat has no use for my assistant when it comes to _the event_. But then again... I can't always trust his words now, can I?

“Hey, I… I’ve been meaning to speak with you about something…” I hear him ask from where he is currently doing repairs. One of the control boxes shorted out earlier today, it’s my brother’s fault, he startled me and I spilt my coffee on the control panel. I will not tell Fiddleford about this.  
  
Turning, I look at the other man, he seems so nervous. “What is it?”  
  
“I’ve been doing some calculations on the portal and… I don’t know how well it will work, if it will work at all.”  
  
“What makes you think that? Did you double check your work?”  
  
“I have, several times, and it’s just…” He walks up to me, papers in his hands. I take them from him and glance them over.

He’s not wrong, there appears to be complications with the machine, that we don’t get the results we have been working towards. I glare at the paper and hand it back to him. “Then help me figure out how to get them to work they way we need them to work.”  
  
“But Sta-!”  
  
“No ‘buts’, McGucket. We need this to work, or else…” I glance over my shoulder, seeing something in the shadows shift. “Or else he will do something I think we’ll both regret.”  
  
Fiddleford swallows a lump in his throat, clutching his papers tightly before sighing softly. “Yes sir, I’ll get right on it.”  
  
I nod and turn to the wall, seeing the shadows move and take shape, forming the geometric shape that taunts me so. “You son of a bitch…” I hiss quietly. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”  
  
His laughter continues to echo in my head, like the ringing of a church bell in your skull.  
  
_Pines, you have no idea how much I’m enjoying this._

“Well, have your fun now, cause this will end soon.”

_Soon, my dear Pines, is the key word here. And I am patient, oh so patient._

I shake my head and grab my journal, I need to continue my current research, he can be dealt with later. Right now, I have bigger issues to worry about, Cipher can wait.

As he said, he is a very patient being. You have to be when you’re waiting for the darkness to arrive.

\--

Stan has been a thorn in your side lately, like he has just been riding you for the past few days. Heck, he’s been a jerk to you since the start of summer! When you’re not off hanging with your sister and friends, or dealing with the supernatural, you’re stuck cleaning up Stan’s messes or doing stupid chores for him.

Like earlier, he asked you to get a bat out of the kitchen, and the thing attacked you! You want to teach that old jerk a lesson, but what’s the point? He’ll just kick your butt from here to Portland.

You feel like he doesn’t treat you the way you should be treated, he’s just… uhg! And come on! He even got you and Mabel arrested for counterfeiting money! You’re still not sure how you went along with that in the first place though.

But that’s besides the point, because Stan Pines is the biggest bully you’ve dealt with in a long time!

Yeah, that was the point. Wait... your inner monologue is confusing. Go back to being angry. 

You slam your foot on the ground in your state of anger, only for there to be no sound, no shock of pain. The wood under your foot has turned gray, just as the walls have, just as everything has.

A feeling of déjà vu comes to you as you look around, like you’ve been to a gray-scale world before…

The world looks similar to the inside of the shack, only… not. It’s different, fuzzy sort of, like it’s out of focus. The room seems longer, less decorated, there is a fire in the fireplace, its shades of gray. However, a color does appear out of nowhere though, a blinding red light. You shield your eyes and it’s over in a second.

“Huh?” You frown, suddenly feeling the ground under you being to shake. You gasp as you look up just as the ceiling is torn off and sucked into the void of space! A strange portal appears, circled in red, the inside black.

Bright blue lighting sparks out of the portal and it seems that another one is forming with in it.

What… what will come out of it?!

Something pops out of the inner portal, shooting across the sky a few feet and coming to a halt with a squeak of its heels on nothing.

It looks like… a triangle? What the heck, it’s a triangle in a top hat and bow tie!

You can’t explain it, but this thing seems familiar. Wait! You remember seeing something like this before! The night, when you were taking notes for a little quest from the journal, you stopped on the page with the black, one-eyed triangle!

Is this it? It doesn’t seem like a threat. What did the book call it? Bill something? Is it a guy? Maybe, you don’t know, a million thoughts are going through your mind right now as you look at the guy, and… he’s waving at you?  
  
“Hi there buddy!” He says, though he has no mouth, but his body lights up for every word he says.  
  
He snaps his fingers and a cane appears. He floats down to your level and starts to do a little jig for some reason. What the heck? Why were you scared of this guy when you looked at the drawing of him? He’s not scary at all, but he sure is weird.  
  
“Who are you?” You ask, looking at him as he finishes his dance with a bit of pizzazz.  
  
“Name’s Bill!” He takes off his hat like a gent. “Nice to meet ya!” Though, in the back of your head, you feel like this isn’t the first time you’ve meet him.  
  
As he tilts his hat from the top point of his form, the room shifts and you lose your footing, tumbling to the tilted side of the room with a yelp.  
  
This Bill guy stays in place as he puts his hat back on, but his eyes moves to the other side of his body, looking at you, the room returning to its normal balance. “Nice subconscious you have here, Dipper.”   
  
“Huh? W-what? How do you know my name?” You ask as you gain your balance once more.  
  
Bill flies up to you, seeming pleased with himself for some reason. “Oh, I know lots of things!” He drops to the ground, landing on his feet. “You’re scared to death of uncertainty!”  
  
Suddenly, he splits into another triangle, now there’s two of him! “Your real name isn’t Dipper!” Says the second Bill.  
  
And now a third one appears! “And… oh-ho! This is interesting!” The third one says, looking excited. “You spend a lot of time thinking about this red-headed cashier girl!”  
  
You feel your cheeks burn at this and you try to defend yourself, while these three nut-jobs have the nerve to gossip about this in front of you! “Dude! What do you want from me!?” You yell, getting their attention.  
  
“Oh right.” Bill says, snapping his fingers and making his clones morph back into him. “So get this!” His eye changes and suddenly a screen is projecting from it, showing you images of Stan, Gideon, and the shack.  
  
“This fat little baby man, Gideon, hires me to, uh, I dunno, hop into your uncle’s mind and steal the combination to his safe or whatever. So the kid can, I dunno, steal a deed and destroy your house or something? It’s complicated.”  
  
He shuts off his projector-thing, his eye returning to normal. “Pretty serious stuff. Hey, what’s this?” He picks up a paddle ball and starts to play with it, all while you are wigging out.  
  
“You’re gonna get Grunkle Stan’s codes by entering his dreams?!” You exclaim as he continues to play with the toy.  
  
“Sure, just like how I entered your dreams.” Bill stops playing with the paddle ball, glancing at you. "Hey, what’s that?” He snaps his fingers and suddenly the shack is gone, the sky is blue and you seem to be falling. Oh! And you’re screaming too, that’s just great.  
  
While you’re screaming, Bill is falling with you, being so casual about it. “I bet you’re wondering if there’s a way to stop me. Well, I don’t want to give you any hints, but I bet there’s a way for you to follow me into his dreams!” Bill explains happily. “Hey! There’s the old man’s head now!”  
  
Bill points his cane towards a direction and you see that he’s pointing at a giant stone sculpture thing of your uncle’s sleeping face, poking out amongst an endless sea of trees. He moves to suddenly be in front of you. “See you in your nightmares, kid!” Bill says, snapping his fingers and opens a portal.  
  
His eye blinks at you. “You can’t tell, but I’m winking. You know, one eye.” He points to his eye before tipping his hat at you. “Okay, later, BYYYYEEEE!” He yells as he practically cartwheels into the portal.  
  
You watch this before remembering that you’re falling and look down, screaming as you’re just about to hit the ground…  
  
“GAH!” You tumble to the floor, suddenly realizing that you’re back in the shack, right where you had been when you stomped your foot. The room is normal and so is the color scheme of things.  
  
“It was just a dream…” You tell yourself, standing up and wiping your brow, only to notice something on your hand.  
  
There is a message, written in blue that reads:

 _THE DREAM IS REAL._  
  
-Bill

You gasp, but notice that there’s more. “Huh?”  
  
_Look what I did to your other hand._

You hold up your right hand and just look at it in confusion. He… he drew a turkey on the inside of your hand, heck, he even wrote _‘look! A turkey!’_ next to it as well.

You’re… not sure what to make of all of this.  
  
\--  
  
You washed the ink off your hands, confused by all the crazy Bill stuff, before returning to work. What was that all about, was he really going to enter Stan’s mind? Or was he just screwing with you? But then again, he said that Gideon had summoned him, and Gideon would be stupid enough to summon a demon to do his dirty work.

But why should you care about Stan? He’s been the worst to you lately; he deserves getting his mind invaded by a triangle man! However… you don’t want the shack to be taken away… uhg, too conflicting. You shake your head and return to sweeping the den, glancing over at Stan who is knocked the freak out.  
  
Stan shifts in his sleep, mumbling to himself. “Oh… I’m so sorry…”  
  
You cock an eyebrow at this. “What is going on in that guy’s head?” You ask yourself just as your twin and Soos come running in, both looking frightened.  
  
“Dipper!” Mabel exclaims loudly. “We’ve gotta help Stan!” 

“Wait, what?” You frown, looking at the others.  
  
Soos munches on some of the chips from the bag he’s holding. “This evil triangle guy said he’s gonna break into Stan’s mind and steal the combination to his safe!” Then he pauses and smiles at you, holding up his bag of chips. “Also, we stopped for snacks on the way here.”  
  
“Triangle guy?” Oh crap, did they run into Bill as well? You pull the journal out from your vest and open it up, just to make sure you’ve all encountered the same guy. You flip through it, stopping on his page. “Beware Bill, the most powerful and dangerous creature I’ve encountered.” You say as you read the pages aloud, seeing a passage that just reads **DO NOT SUMMON AT ALL COSTS.** “Whatever you do, never let him enter your mind.”  
  
Well, he can do it while you sleep so you can’t really follow that instruction 24/7.  
  
Stan grunts a bit, twitching in his sleep and catching your attention. The three of you watch in shock as the shadow of Bill enters his mind. In a second, Stan’s eyes shoot open, glowing blue and he’s trashing about, in pain.   
  
In your distraction, Mabel snatches the book from you. “It is possible to follow the demon into a person’s mind,” she reads, “and prevent his chaos. One must simply recite this incantation.”  
  
You frown and shake your head. “Uhg, this is just great. I spend all day cleaning sinks and fighting bats for Stan and now I have to save him from some crazy brain demon?”  
  
“But if we don’t do anything, Gideon might steal the shack! Or worse!” Mabel yells as Stan starts to cry out behind her. You look at him before looking at Mabel and Soos, they looks so desperate for him to be safe.

You are such a softy sometimes.  
  
“Fine.” You sigh and take the book. “Get ready guys. We’re about to journey into the most horrifying, disturbing place any of us have ever been: our uncle’s mind.”  
  
Soos chuckles a bit behind you. “You think I can take these Burrito Bites into Stan’s brain? Thumbs up? Thumbs down?” You and Mabel just look at him and he laughs. “You know what, I’m just gonna bring ‘em.”  
  
\--

The three of you set up the ritual circle to enter Stan’s mind. You look at the book before looking at the other two. “Okay guys, in order to save our uncle, we’re gonna have to follow that… dream demon into his mind.”

Soos looks at Stan, tilting his head a bit. “I wonder what Stan’s thinking about right now.” He put his hands on Stan’s face, moving his mouth. “I love Soos like a son!”  
  
“Soos!” You yell. “This is serious!” He apologizes by making Stan say it in the fake voice he had been using before. Mabel and him laugh and then high five. You roll your eyes.  
  
“Let’s do this.” You say, putting your hand on Stan’s head. Mabel and Soos do the same.  
  
“Videntus omnium. Magister mentium. Magnesium as hominem. Magnum opus. Habeas corpus! Inceptus Nolanus overrates! Magister mentium! Magister mentium! MAGISTER MENTIUM!” Mabel will tell you later that your eyes turned solid blue like your uncle’s while you said this.  
  
As you said the last word, there was an explosion and suddenly you were in a gray world that looks like the outside of the shack. It was horribly fuzzy and all the words on the building were written in one of the codes from the journal. You notice a swing set nearby, one you know that is not outside the Mystery Shack. One of the seats is broken, it unsettles you.  
  
“What the?” You hear Soos say as he looks around.  
  
“Whoa, this is Stan’s mind?” Mabel questions, to which Soos mentions something about there being a lack of hot old ladies. Mabel frowns, glancing around. “Remember everyone, we’ve got to look out for the triangle guy.”  
  
“Yeah, look out for the triangle guy!”  
  
You turn and look at the shack at the sudden voice, there he is! It’s Bill again!  
  
“You leave our uncle’s brain alone, you isosceles monster!” Mabel growls and charges at him, only to suddenly vanish inside of him! Three or four seconds later and she comes right out, falling to the ground. “Gotcha!” She grins before realizing what has happened. “Wait, what?!”  
  
Bill seems amused by the three of you. “Ah, Stan’s family, we meet at last.” That’s a lie. “Question Mark, Shooting Star, Pine Tree, I had a hunch I might bump into you.” He planned this! Suddenly he points at you and freaking shoots a hole right through you!  
  
You scream at this, holy crap, there is literally a gaping hole in your torso! Which… your sister sticks her hand through. “Mabel!” You snap at her before looking at Bill. You’re about to ask him what he wants, but Mabel is already asking him what he wants Stan’s mind for anyway. You probably should have told her and Soos, but a part of you said not to do it. You think that might be Bill’s fault.  
  
“Oh, just the code to the old man’s safe! Inside the shack is a maze of a thousand doors representing your uncle’s memories. Behind one of them is a memory of him inputting the code! I just need to find it and Gideon will pay me handsomely.”

“Not if we stop you!” Your twin says, still wanting to fight him.

“Hah, fat chance! I’m the master of the mind; I even know what you’re thinking right now!” He says as blue flames encircle him. Those send a shiver up your spine, where have you seen them before?  
  
“That’s impossible, no one can guess what I’m thinking!”  
  
Bill rolls his eye and snaps his fingers; suddenly those two boys from Mabel’s corny cartoon movie come to life behind her. Oh great, now they’re flirting with her and she’s enjoying this, all the while you still have a huge hole where your digestive system use to be.  
  
“You’re out of your league, kids.” Bill speaks up. “Turn around now before you see something you might regret. Later, suckers!” He yells as he flies back into the mindscape of the Mystery Shack, crashing into it and vanishing.  
  
“We’re goin’ in!” You order. “Mabel, can we leave those guys out there, looking at them… hurts my eyes.”  
  
“No! They can help us!” She says as they pick her up in what they call the ‘arm throne’. This is even more painful then actually watching their movie, uhg. You bolt inside when Soos tries to give you an arm throne.  
  
Inside of the shack is literally a maze. There are countless doors and windows, showing memories of Stan’s life, his dreams, his hopes, and even some of his fears. It’s unsettling, but you have a mission to do. So, the five of you start to open doors, trying to find either the code or Bill, hopefully not at the same time.  
  
You eventually come across a door labeled ‘Dipper Memories’. Soos tells you it’s a bad idea to look but you ignore him away, you want to see what the old man really thinks of you. Mabel and Soos decide to keep going with their search for the code.  
  
Opening the door, you see yourself on the porch of the shack in front of Stan. “No buts!” Stan argues. “Now go and chop that firewood already!” He bops memory you on the head and the other you rubs his head, going off to chop the wood.  
  
Soos is sitting next to Stan, seeming a bit bothered by that and he voices it. “Dude, Stan, I’ve been meaning to ask you. Why are you so hard on Dipper all the time?”  
  
Stan sighs and turns to look at him. “Look Soos, I’m gonna let you in on something. Wanna know what I really think?” He starts to whisper to Soos and you lean in to hear. “The kid’s a loser. He’s weak! He’s an utter embarrassment! I just wanna get rid of him.”  
  
You step back and quietly close the door, exiting the memory.

So… that’s what he really thinks of you, huh? You wish you hadn’t been curious…  
  
\-- 

You hear Mabel, Soos and those two cartoon characters talking as you walk up a flight of stairs, still heartbroken by what you had witnessed. “Come on!” Your sister says, not noticing you. “We’ve gotta save Stan!”  
  
“What’s the point? Why should I save him, huh?” You speak up, not caring that you sound so bitter. “I work for Stan day and night, and all he does in return is say he wants to get rid of me.”  
  
Mabel turns to you, frowning softly. “Dipper, I’m sure that’s not true.”  
  
“I saw it with my own eyes in one of his memories, Mabel! He always picked on me and now I know why. Stan hates me!” They gasp but you ignore them.  
  
“Dipper, it doesn’t matter what you saw. If we don’t stop Bill, we’ll lose the shack!”  
  
“No!” You yell, glaring at your sister. “You know what? Not this time. For once this is one of Stan’s problems I’m not gonna fix!”  
  
Mabel stares are you before narrowing her eyes. “Fine. Come on Soos. We’ll save Stan ourselves.”  
  
Soos looks at you with a disappointed expression. “Dipper, you’re a cool dude, but… this isn’t cool, dude.” He tells you before walking away. Those bright colors guys Mabel likes follow, stupidly trying to be mad but are excited over calling each other by their names.  
  
You turn and wander around the mindscape, still fuming and hurting from that. You cared about your uncle; he’s a good guy, but just… He can be the worst sometimes and you had a feeling he always didn’t care for you. Heck, you think he didn’t even know your name for the first few days you were here.  
  
“Uhg, how do I get out of this place?” You frown and open a random door. “Exit? Hello?” You notice the memory and make a face. “Aw, this again?” Of course, just your luck, you would be the one to walk into this memory again.  
  
“He’s a loser.” You heard Stan say to Soos once more. “He’s weak. I just wanna get rid of him.” You turn to close the door. “Huh, yeah. Those are all things people said about me when I was a boy.” You pause and open the door more. What is he talking about? He wasn’t talking about you?  
  
“It was terrible.” Stan continues. “I was the biggest wimp on the playground!”  
  
Behind you, a door opens and you see that it’s a memory of Stan being bullied as a child and he’s crying.  
  
“So one summer, my pop signs me up for boxing lessons.” Another door opens and you see Stan in a boxing ring and he’s getting beaten up. “It was even worse than the school yard!” Stan says, but you watch him as he punches his opponent.  
  
“Y’know, that time I thought my pop was trying to torture me.” A third door opens and you see Stan at a theater. “But wouldn’t you know it? The old man was doin’ me a favor all along.” You witness him stop a robbery of a woman’s purse by punching someone hard with a left hook.  
  
Turning around, you go back to the main memory. “You see it? That’s why I’m hard on Dipper.” Stan explains. “To toughen him up. So when the world fights, he fights back.”  
  
“Do you think it’s actually working?” Soos asks and Stan points at you who is chopping wood. You watch yourself finally get a log cut in half and you look so happy.  
  
Stan smiles a little. “He’s really comin’ along! When push comes to shove, I’m actually proud of him. Just… don’t ever tell him that. His head is big enough as it is.” Soos laughs and agrees with him.  
  
You smile and put your hand on the invisible divider between you and the dream. However, it seems to be very weak cause you just stumbled into the dream, catching Stan’s attention. “Whoa, kid, what are you doin’ here?” He asks. “Nice hole in your chest, by the way. Let’s fix that up.” He flips his finger up and the hole is fixed, it’s as if Bill hadn’t shot you.  
  
“Wh-what the- how did you do that?” You ask, looking up at him.  
  
“Word to the wise, kid. We’re in the mind! You can do whatever you imagine in here!” He flicks his wrist and a Pitt Cola appears, opening itself.

You smile a bit. “Well, how about that.” You turn to the door when you hear screams from outside of the memory. “Oh my gosh, what am I doing!? I gotta stop Bill!” You say, running out of the memory.  
  
“Where could they be…” You look around before noticing a strange structure, the screams were louder here. “How do I get up there?” Then it hits you, this is the dreamscape, you can do whatever you want! With a smirk, you fly up to the top of the structure to get to your sister and friend.  
  
You can hear Bill, saying he’ll finish them off, oh no way in heck is that happening!  
  
“Hey Bill!” You yell as you fly up over them all.  
  
Bill seems shocked to see you. _“WHAT?!”_

“Nice bow tie!” You smirk as you freaking shot lasers out of your eyes, burning a hole through him. Revenge is awesome! You turn to your sister and Soos, grinning. “Guys! I just learned that you can conjure whatever you can conceive in Grunkle Stan’s mindscape! Just think of cool fighting stuff and it will happen. Like this!” You point at the big British dog (why was it there) and kill it with a laser.  
  
“Haha, he’s dead now.” Soos says.  
  
Bill is glaring at you, furious. _“What?! Who told you that!? Don’t listen to him!”_  
  
Mabel blinks and smiles. “Anything?” Suddenly her gross head returns to normal. “Like have kittens for fists?” Her hands suddenly become cat heads and she fires them at Bill, striking him as they meow.

Soos seems to contemplate this. “Anything, huh? Soos love stomach mean stare!” He yells as the question mark on his shirt shoots a question mark-shaped beam at the demon and knocks him down.  
  
He’s beyond furious now. _“Enough games!”_ He screams as he fires his own laser, but Mabel is quick, creating a hamster ball around herself, just as you and Soos do, deflecting the laser beam, bouncing back and hitting Bill in the eye.  
  
_“AH! Oh my eye! AAAH!”_  
  
“Rise, Xyler! Rise, Craz!” Mabel says as she summons her cartoon characters, they start playing synthesized music together and Bill is in pain from this.  
  
“And now to imagine your worst nightmare!” You announce. “A portal out of Stan’s mind!” You, Mabel, Soos and the cartoons guys concentrate on this, making a hole form underneath Bil.  
  
_“No, no, no! **Enough!** ”_ Suddenly, everything is white and Bill is no longer red, back to his regular gold. “You know, I’ve been impressed with you guys. You are more clever that you look. Especially the fat one.”  
  
Soos pokes at Mabel, whispering at her. “He’s talking about you!”  
  
Bill ignores him and continues. “So I’m gonna let you kids off the hook. You might come in handy later.” He’s looking at you when he says this. “ **BUT KNOW THIS** : _a darkness approaches. A day will come in the future when everything you care about will change!_ ” He says in a dark tone. But then in a second he lightens up and sounds happy.  
  
“Until then I’ll be watching you! _I’LL BE WATCHING YOU…_ ” And with that, he vanishes.

You three vanish as well and return to the waking world. You’re all happy that Stan wakes up, looking like nothing happened, probably not even realizing what happened exactly. As you all talk, you suddenly realize that the shake is shaking and there’s a sudden explosion behind the sofa.  
  
Gideon is standing there, looking not-so innocent about what he had just done. “Oh, I’m sorry, Pines family. Did I wake you?”  
  
“But... we defeated Bill!” You say in disbelief.  
  
“Bill failed me!” The little brat glares. “So I switched to plan B, dynamite!”

Stan looks horribly confused as he looks at the four of you. “What? Bill? Who? What are you guys talking about?”  
  
“Spoiler alert, Stanford! I’ve got the deed!” Gideon says proudly as he holds up the deed to the Mystery Shack. “The Mystery Shack belongs to me! So get out of my property!” He grabs a walkie-talkie and speaks into it. “Daddy? Bring it ‘round the front.”  
  
You nervously smile and turn to your family. “Don’t worry, guys! It’s just part of the dream! We’re gonna wake up and second now! Right? Right?!”  
  
Suddenly, the shack shakes again as a wrecking ball strikes the sign on the roof. You all scream as the sign falls down in front of you.

This isn’t a dream… is it?

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took forever! And no, I’m not writing out Gideon Rises, Bill’s not in that one. And using transcripts is a pain in the butt to get dialogue. 
> 
> By the way, I was very excited to write for Stanley Pines (is that his name? I mean, people keep saying it is, I’ll change it if that isn’t the name), because this guy has been making me do so much research into the show and he was someone I had narrowed down. And sorry for the cussing, but he’s a grown man and there are no kids here so, totally cussing. 
> 
> Especially at Bill, cause Bill is a bastard. 
> 
> Also, the scene with Bill and Dipper is based on a deleted scene from the episode. I fused it with said episode at a different scene from the original, and with this story, so… haha, I just really wanted to have Bill draw a turkey on Dipper’s hand.
> 
> Extra note: I'm on Spring Break right now, but college starts up again on Monday so updates will be a bit slow. And today is my birthday so this was a gift to you readers from the birthday kid!


	4. Chapter 4

**_25-5-1-18-19  9-14  20-8-5  16-1-19-20,  2-21-20  14-15-20  13-1-14-25_ **

It was by accident that I came upon the method of summoning the dream demon. 

I stumbled upon it while exploring a cave in Gravity Falls, finding old markings on the stonewalls in one of the codes found around the area, along with a carving of a triangle.

The strange thing was that I had seen the triangle in my dreams several times, in a strange world of grays and blurred shapes. He was always there, silently watching me. He only spoke to me once, when I had the guts to approach him.

_Your nosiness will be your downfall, Stanford Pines._

I had not dreamt of him since that time, nor had I seen him again until I came upon the cave. It was like fate brought me there; told me to explore the cave, to find these ancient drawings of a strange being from another dimension. I was honestly surprised no one had found them before, but then again, this town seems to do their best to avoid the unknown. 

At the time, I was working on Journal Two and I took notes, decoding the summoning processes, writing down any interesting significant things from the stone slab. I even wrote about seeing the triangle before in my dreams, wondering if that had any significance to the carvings.

I took pictures and showed them to Stan. He freaked out, telling me they made him uncomfortable and for me to burn the notes. Burn them all, rip up the photos, whitewash the hell out of the cave walls so no one could find them every again!

Of course I didn’t do any of that; this was too interesting of find to just give up!

However, I greatly wish I had listened to my brother.

I decided to try my hand at summoning the demon on the slab of rock. It was a strange summoning, especially because the demon turned out to be the triangle in a fancy hat from my dreams. Here in this realm he was so kind and nice, even though he once tried to offer me the bones of a squirrel he had removed with just the snap of his fingers.

I am still a bit disturbed by that.

He told me he would help me with anything, I asked for help on the plans for a device I had discovered. He seemed very interested in this, helping me finish the designs in my journals. The being said that what I wanted was something he had been working on for a while now, this was the perfect opportunity for us both to accomplish our goals!

Bill Cipher had not asked for a payment for the plans though, I noticed. He said he had made a deal with me for the designs, but he never said what it was.

I had to tell Fiddleford and Stanley about my supernatural companion. My dear assistant was upset, he didn’t like the idea that a demon would help with his machinery, but eventually he accepted Bill. To a point. Fiddleford soon began having nightmares shortly after meeting Bill; I never made a connection between these two things. I really should have, no wonder he made that horrible society.

Stan though… he was furious when I told him.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that mad before in my life; he looked ready to knock the teeth right out of my head. But he dropped his fist and told me, “I’ve seen that thing before, once, in a dream. He’s not to be trusted. He speaks in riddles that sound helpful but they aren’t. He’s only looking out for himself, we’re just pawns.”

What could that mean? I wondered, Bill was so kind and helpful, a true friend.

But then I realized that it was all a rouse.

Stan, brother, I am so sorry. If you ever read this journal, which I doubt, I want you to know that I am so sorry for not believing you, no wonder you hate me. I wish I things had been better between us, that we hadn’t fought, that I hadn’t gotten you and Fiddleford involved, or that I even came here.

I’ll try to come home soon; I just hope you’re waiting for me.

\--

Soos did a good job repairing the laptop that he had found in the bunker, an event that you wish you could forget for more than one reason. (The traps, the Shape Shifter, Wendy turning you down…)

You and Mabel are suppose to be figuring out the password code together, but she’s busy with trying to impress some boy who has a weird interest in puppets. You think he makes out with them, but you don’t want to tell Mabel that. You wish your sister would help you, you’ve been helping her with all the puppet work for her silly puppet show, but she hasn’t helped you once.

Hopefully she will go through with her promise to help you out, since you’re helping her. Whatever, you can still try on your own, and that’s what you’re doing right now on the roof while everyone sleeps and you’re stuck awake/some-what sleepy.

“Uhg, I can’t take that sound anymore.” You grumble as the next password you put in failed and you were given a loud beep in response. “I. Hate. You. Sound.” You say as you pound on the laptop before pausing to yawn. “There has to be some shortcut or clue. Who would know about secret codes?”  
  
Suddenly the wing picks up and you glance up at the moon, seeing that it now has a pupil staring down at you. Blue bricks start to form around it into the shape of a very familiar geometric form. As soon as it takes shape, the world is gray in color.

 _“I THINK I KNOW A GUY.”_ The shape says as it turns yellow. “Well, well, well, you’re awfully persistent, Pine Tree.” Bill says as he shrinks in size.

“Hats off to you!” He removes his hat and the world tips and you fall back, only to return to your original spot when he puts his hat back on.

“You again!?” You exclaim, glaring at him.

Bill doesn’t seem bothered by this, in fact, he seems completely amused. “Did you miss me? Admit it, you missed me.” He would be smiling if he had a mouth right now.

“Hardly. You worked with Gideon! You tried to destroy my uncle’s mind!”

He scoffs at you. “It was just a job, kid! No hard feelings! I’ve been keeping an,” his form gets bigger as his voice gets lower, _“EYE ON YOU.”_

He then returns to normal. “Since then, and I must say, I’m impressed!”  
  
“Really?” You ask, a little cautious. You can’t trust this guy at all, even if you hadn’t read the warning in the journal, you would never trust Bill.

“You deserve a prize! Here, have a head that’s always screaming!” He claps and a decapitated head appears, screaming at you and making you yelp. Bill just laughs and snaps his fingers; the head is torn apart, layer by layer, until it’s gone. “The point is I like you. How’s about you let me give you a hint, huh? I only ask for a small,” again, his voice gets lower, but his eye lights up like a flame, _“FAVOR”_ and then he’s normal again, “in return.” He needs to stop doing that. 

“I’d never do a favor for you! Don’t forget who defeated you last time!” You yell, trying to act tough but deep down, you’re scared shitless.

He vanishes and is suddenly behind you. “Right, you ‘defeated me’. Well, if you ever change your mind,” he puts his hands around your head, pulling out an illusion of a brain, “I’ll be here for you, ready to make a deeaaall.” His body turns into a slot machine, spins, and then landing on three pine trees like your hat’s symbol. “Hey, wanna hear my impression of you in about three seconds?”

Bill suddenly screams and waves his arms about. You suddenly wake up, doing the exact same thing as what he had done. When you finally relax, you notice the world is colored again, there’s no trace of Bill, and you’re exhausted.

The next morning, you tiredly walk into the kitchen as Mabel puts a paper bag puppet of Stan into the old man’s face, though he tries to ignore it. He glances at you and laughs a bit. “Whoa, bag check for Dipper’s eyes! Haha!” No one laughs and he seems confused by this.

“Dipper, I told you to get some sleep last night!” Mabel scolds you. “Here, wake up with some Mabel Juice!” She picks up a blender full of a reddish liquid, glitter, ice, and toy dinosaurs. “It has plastic dinosaurs in it!” She says happily.

Stan makes a face. “It’s like if coffee and nightmares had a baby.”  
  
You grab your sister and push her into the den, away from Stan who is distracted with the newspaper. “Mabel, last night I had a dream with Bill in it.”  
  
She frowns, looking bothered. “Wait, hold up, the triangle guy?” She asks, making the shape of a triangle with her fingers as she holds it up to her eye.  
  
“He said he’d give me the code to the laptop if I gave him something. Like I’d actually trust Bill, right?” You scoff, smiling.  
  
Mabel matches your smile. “Don’t worry, bro! Today’s the day that the Mystery Twins are back in action! I’ll help you crack that code. I’ve just got to hand off my puppet stuff to my production crew.”  
  
“Production crew?”

Turns out it’s Candy and Grenda. As Mabel is giving them the puppet stuff, Wendy and Soos are helping with the sets, that Gabe guy she’s crushing on comes up and tells her some silly nonsense about how he removed a girl from his phone contact list because she failed to impress him with her puppets.

Of course, Mabel freaks out and needs to make things bigger and grander, ditching you once more for her lame crush on some loser! You thought she was actually gonna help you, but she’s betrayed you! Again!

So now you’re stuck with trying to figure out the password all on your own again, hiding up in the room with the red window. You continue to put in passwords until it just gets to the point that you’re typing in nonsense.

“Passwords. Passwords. Mabel. Is. Useless.” You sigh and yawn, still tired. “Oh man…” You push a key and suddenly the screen puts up a message.

 **“Too many failed entries.”** It tells you. **“Initiate date erase in five minutes.”**

You gasp, you can’t have that happen! “No! Nonononono! I’m gonna lose everything!? I only have one more try!?”  
  
The red of the window is gone and the room is gray, oh no…

“Well, well, well, someone’s looking desperate.” Bill says, suddenly appearing once more.

“I thought I told you to leave me alone.” You growl, you really don’t need him here now!

“I can help you, kid.” His hands turn to blue fire. “You just need to hear out my demands.”  
  
You glance at the screen of the old laptop; it’s now at the four minute mark. “Uh, what crazy thing do you want anyway? To eat my soul? To rip out my teeth? Are you gonna replace my eyes with baby heads or something?”

“Yeesh, kid! Relax!” He seems to make a face, thought it’s hard to tell. “All I want is a puppet!”  
  
You blink. “A puppet? What are you playing at?”  
  
“Everyone loves puppets.” He says happily. “And it looks to me that you’ve got a surplus.”  
  
You glance in the direction he’s looking at, at one of the box of puppets that Mabel left up here. “I don’t know, man. Mabel worked really hard on these.”  
  
“Seems to me one little puppet is a small price to pay to learn all the secrets of the universe. Besides, what’s your sister done for you, lately? How many times have you sacrificed for her, huh? And when has she ever returned the favor?” His body shows you images of the things you’ve done for Mabel this summer at the sacrifice of your own happiness.

You glance out the window, seeing Mabel with her friends, then back to the laptop. It’s now at the thirty second mark. Bill’s eye has turned into a clock now. “Tick tock, kid.” He holds out a hand to you, it’s on fire.  
  
“Uh, just one puppet? Fine!” You grab his hand, shaking it. The flames are cold, they don’t hurt at all. “So what puppet are you gonna pick, anyway?”  
  
“Hmm… let’s see. Eenie, meenie, mynie…” Suddenly he turns red and his voice deepens as he grips tightly to your hand. _“YOU!”_

There is a strange tingling sensation and you feel like you’re being pulled apart. The next thing you know, you’re floating and you’re see-thru. You gasp and put your hand through your stomach. “This can’t be happening! What did you do to my body?!” You say as you try to look for him, only to watch in horror as you see _YOUR BODY_ on the floor begin to rise.

You make eye contact with your body and see that your eyes are tinted yellow, the iris blue as the flames of Bill, and the pupils are long. He’s in your body and he’s grinning like he just conquered the whole world.

“Sorry, kid but you’re MY puppet now!” He laughs as he picks up the laptop and _FREAKING SMASHES IT ON THE GROUND AND THEN STEPS ON IT OH GOSH OH GOSH!_

“Oh my Gosh, this can’t be happening!” You’re starting to freak out big time, watching him wobble around, trying to get his footing as he stumbles to a mirror.

“Man, it has been so long since I’ve inhabited a body.” He suddenly slaps your face. “Woo!” He slaps the other cheek. “Woo! Haha! Pain is hilarious! And two eyes? This thing’s deluxe!” He grins as he plays with your face, all the while, you watch on in horror.

“I don’t understand!” You yell, catching his attention. “Why are you doing this?! I thought we had a deal!”  
  
Bill turns to you, giving you a look. “Look kid, you’ve been getting way too close to figuring out some major answers. I’ve got big plans comin’ and I don’t need you getting’ in my way! Destroying that laptop was a cinch. Now I just need to destroy your journal. Race ya to the bottom of the stairs!” He grins as he walks up to the stairs leading out of the attic and freaking tips backwards, tumbling down them.

You gasp and go through the floors, ending up in the living room. You steady yourself and go through the wall, heading for the kitchen and finding Bill in there, pulling a soda from the fridge.

“Human soda! I’m gonna drink it like a person!” He opens the can and just… dumps the contents into your stolen mouth and all over your face. “Where do you keep the journal anyway?” He asks, tossing the can aside and opening a drawer, putting your arm in and suddenly starts to slam the drawer on it repeatedly!

“It’s gotta be around here somewhere.” He’s grinning at you as he continues to close the drawer, one of his eyes twitching. “Boy, these arms are durable!”  
  
“I’ve hidden it!” You yell at him, seeing that he’s stopped and pulls his arm out, it’s got forks sticking into it. You wince and squirm, that’s gonna hurt so much when you get your body back. “Somewhere you’ll never find it in a million years!”

“Hey Dipper!” Mabel pokes her head into the kitchen. “I borrowed your journal to use as a prop in the show I hope you don’t mind I’m gonna go before you process this sentence okay BYEE!!” She says in one breath before running off.

You stare in horror before looking at Bill, he’s twisted your face into a nasty grin. “Sure, sounds great, sister!” He yells. “I’ll see you at the show!”

“Wait! No, Mabel, don’t listen to him!” You yell as you fly out after her, ending up outside. “That’s not me! You’ve gotta hear me!” You say, landing in front of Grunkle Stan’s car, your sister and uncle inside of it. “No, no! Wait! Stop!” You yell just as the car drives right through you.

“Heh!” Bill has moved outside, grinning. “Welcome to the mindscape, kid! Without a vessel to possess, you’re basically a ghost!”  
  
You stare at him in horror, oh God, he planned all of this, hasn't he?!

“Oh, hey Dipper!” Soos says, spotting your stolen body, same with Wendy. “There you are!”  
  
“What’s up, dude?” Wendy says as she stops in front of your body. You scream at them, trying to get their attention, completely forgetting what Bill had just told you. They tell Bill that they’re heading to the theater.

“Need a ride, Dipper?” Wendy asks and Bill grins.  
  
“Oho, anything for you, Red!” He says, smirking as he gets into the car. That jerk! He still remembers what you felt for your friend! You watch him as he buckles himself in (why did he do that when he was so ready to just fall down the stairs or shove forks into your skin?), and you fly up to the door of the car.

“I’m gonna stop you, Bill!” You glare at him. “I’m gonna find that journal before you do and I’m gonna stop you!”  
  
“But how can you stop me,” he slowly turns to look at you, the grin on his face getting impossibly big, “if you don’t exist?” He bursts into a maniacal laughter as he rolls up the window and the car drives off.

\--

You chased after them, having trouble with your ghost form, eventually getting to the theater. You find Bill sitting in the front row, an arm around Wendy and Soos. ‘Aw, nothing like the theater, huh toots? Hey Soos, wanna hear the exact time and date of your death?” He asks and Soos happily and stupidly says yes to this.

“Hey guys, you all made it!” Mabel says happily as she approaches your friends, your body, and Stan.  
  
“Are you kidding me?” The latter says. “I would never miss… whatever this is.” Well, it’s nice that he came to support Mabel, even though he was ignoring her puppet stuff earlier.  
  
“By the by, Mabel, where’d you put my journal again?” Bill asks, grinning still. How has no one noticed this isn’t you!? He doesn’t even sound like you and his eyes are really creepy and should be noticeable! Come on, even Stan should have noticed!  
  
Mabel grins. “I used it as a prop for the big wedding scene! I still need a reverend, though.”  
  
Bill’s grin gets even bigger, your face is gonna hurt so much! “Hey, what if I play the reverend?” I mean, someone’s gotta hold that journal, right?”

“Right!” She grabs his hand and runs off with him to the backstage.

Oh God, you need to find some way to get in contact with Mabel. She’s probably the only one who can really help you with this!

You’re forced to sit through part of the show until the intermission to get into contact with Mabel, having figured out that there was a way for you to speak with her. Bill said that without a vessel, you were a ghost, well… you have to work with what you’ve got, right?

Mabel walks into her dressing room, looking nerved up, but she’s a good actress (if not a loud one), so she’s got this. “Pst, Mabel!” You say as she gets a drink of water. She glances in your direction and does a spit take. You don’t blame, her, you’d do the same if you saw a floating, talking puppet.

“Aah! It’s come to life! The puppet book didn’t warn me about this!” She grabs a fork and throws it at you, but you dodge.

“Mabel, it’s me, Dipper! You need to help me!”

She blinks, raising an eyebrow. “Wait, what, Dipper?! But you’re… so much more of a sock than usual.

You’re going to ignore that.

“Mabel, you have to listen! Bill tricked me! He stole my body and now he’s after the journal! You have to find the journal before bill destroys it. It’s the only hope to get me back in my body!”

“But my cue’s coming up any minute!” There’s a knock at the door and Gabe walks in with flowers.  
  
“Hey Mabel, do you have a moment?” He asks as she grabs your sock puppet hand out of the air and hides it behind her back, knocking you to the floor.

You struggle as he talks to her, asking her if they can go have biscotti together after the show. Your sister thinks it’s his car. The lights flicker and that means the show is about to start. He goes and leaves, allowing Mabel to talk to you again. The two of you come up with a plan, though it's... you're never gonna live it down. 

\--

You feel pride for having your brother take over the puppet show; Grunkle Stan is recording it so you’ll get to embarrass him with the tape later. Carefully, you walk across the cat walk above the stage to get to the fake cake where you have the journal. You have it there for the big wedding scene, but right now, you need it for your brother’s life.

Approaching the cake, you carefully lean in close to grab the journal, only to fall in, making the cake fall towards the stage. You wait in fear for the impact, only for the cake to come to a jerking halt. Phew! Lucky save! You flip through the journal, trying to find anyway to reverse this. “Come on, come on now, there must be a way to get Dipper’s body back!”  
  
“Oh, but why would you want to do that?”  
  
That voice, you know that voice! Why didn’t you notice it sooner?! Looking up, you see Dipper pulling you up. Only, it’s not your brother, those eyes are too demonic to be your brother’s brown eyes, the same color as yours. The grin on his face is also too evil to be any sort of grin Dipper would make. The reverend outfit is totally not helping either, but if this was a different situation, this would be really cool.

“Bill Dipper!” You gasp, then narrow your eyes. “Bipper.”

“Shh! You wouldn’t want to ruin the show… Whoops! It’s slipping!” He lets go of the rope and you start to fall, only for him to catch the rope and you jerk to a stop. “How about you hand that book over?”

“No way! This is Dipper’s! I’d never give it away!” You hold onto the book, glaring at him still.

Bipper doesn’t seem all that bothered by your glare. “Hmm, you didn’t seem to have a problem taking it for your own play, ditching him when he needed you. So come to your senses. Gimme the book or your play is ruined.”

He has a point; you did ditch your brother and not help him with the password. Plus… there were all those other times you’ve let him down. With a sigh, you hold out the journal. Bipper grins as he reaches for it. “There it is. I mean, who would sacrifice everything they’ve worked for just for their dumb sibling.” Why does it seem like there’s a double meaning to those words?

“Dipper would.” You reply, confusing him as you grab a hold of your stolen brother’s body and pull him into the cake, making it fall to the stage. Your set is damaged, but you don’t care, Bipper is trying to get the journal from your hands and you’re not letting that happen! You grapple around on the stage with him, activating the smoke machine and laser lights.

“Get out of my brother’s body, you evil triangle!” You scream as you hit Bipper in the face with the journal. You think you hear your uncle say something excitedly about children fighting.

You pull off of him, clinging tightly to the journal. Bipper is so angry looking, if he could, you bet he could set you on fire with just the stare he’s giving you. “You can’t stop me! I’m a being of pure energy with no weakness!” He screams before jumping at you, knocking you to the ground.  
  
“True, but you’re in Dipper’s body. And I know all his weaknesses!”  
  
“What do you mean his-?!” You put your hands to his chest and start to tickle him, making him burst out laughing, getting off you and falling to the floor. “Aah! Body spasms! What are these!?”  
  
You smirk as you stand up. “A little note about the human body- you haven’t slept for twenty four hours!” You start to run around the stage with the journal, Bipper begins to chase you. “Also, I got a full night’s sleep and I’m on four mega-shots of Mabel juice!”  
  
Bipper is panting and looking horribly exhausted. “Ah! What is this feeling!?” He wheezes out. “My body is burning! I can’t move these stupid noodle legs! Curse you, useless flesh sticks!” He starts to stumble about. “Body… shutting down… must… scratch… mosquito bites…” He falls to the ground just as the world turns all black and white, the triangle demon flies out of your brother’s body. Dipper quickly enters his body and opens his eyes, looking happy.

“Hey! Yes! I’m in my own body! And it’s… just as underwhelming as I remember.” He stands up and groans in pain. “Ooh… everything hurts.”  
  
You both turn at the sound of cackling. You see the Dipper puppet moving again, only this time it’s because of Bill. “This isn’t the last you’ll hear of me! Big things are coming! You can’t stop me!”

With a frown, you look at the frozen audience. “I’m sorry, Gabe.” You say quietly as you push the ‘Big Finish’ button for your set. Bill is on top of the pyrotechnics you had set up before the show. Dipper and you watch as the fireworks explode and set off, the world returning to color and Bill screams are heard amongst the explosions.

When the explosions and smoke settle, you look at your brother. “Don’t worry. I’ve seen enough movies to know this is the part where the audience thinks it was all part of the show and loves it. Cue applause!”

Sadly you are wrong; the audience doesn’t like it and begins to leave. You see Gabe and ask him to say for the wrap party. He rudely declines and marches off, making out with his puppets.

Maybe… you dodged a bullet with this one.

As Candy runs after Gabe, probably saying something about how much she loves him, you turn to Dipper. He looks pretty beat up. “Mabel, I’m sorry about all of this.” He says as he looks at you. “It’s my fault your puppets are ruined.”  
  
“Well, one of them survived.” You lift up your hand, showing him your Mabel puppet. “And she had something to say to you.” You begin to make her speak. “I’m sorry, Dipper. I spent all of week obsessing over a dumb guy. But the dumb guy I should have cared about was you! Bap!” You gently nudge at his face. “Mystery Twins?”  
  
He smiles. “Mystery Twins.” He fist bumps you, only to gasp in pain. “Ow! What’d Bill do to my hand? Ahh!" 

“Nothing a little sleep can’t fix.” You smile, walking with him off stage. “Come on, bro-bro, let’s go home.”  
  
“Seriously, I need to go to a hospital.”

You laugh, but glance over your shoulder. You think you see a shadow moving, but it might just be a trick of the eyes.

Hopefully that’s all it is, for Dipper’s sake.  
  
TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how Stanford came across the ability to summon Bill, so I made something up.
> 
> Last chapter was interesting to write, however, I think this one was more fun, especially because Sock Opera is a great episode. (Except for Gabe, he’s a little… weird, and this is coming from the kid whose main fandom has an adult man who plays with a puppet and people pair him up with said puppet. *I’m talking about Bro Strider and Lil’ Cal*) 
> 
> Also, I added Stanford as a character because he is going to have a huge part in this story. Plus I adore writing for him; he’s like a more serious Dipper with Grunkle Stan’s face. 
> 
> I’m probably gonna have next chapter take place after Not What He Seems.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, now we’re back to out of canon stuff, especially because the next episode of Gravity Falls (at the time this is written) is on July 13th. Also, I’m gonna quietly sob in a corner after posting this because when that new episode comes out, I’m probably gonna have to do some major changes to this and to Reflection (because people keep saying that there was a body switch and that the twins are really Stan’s grandkids and that he might actually be named Stanley and then there was the AMA with Bill… Speaking of Bill…) 
> 
> This story has went into a way different direction than was originally intended, so, uh, I don’t think Bill/Dipper is really a ship in this, but more of Bill having an obsession over Dipper.
> 
> Also, yes, I know Dipper isn’t as pissed off with Mabel and Stan as we thought he’d be because of what the commercials have shown us, but because this story is mostly drama and angst, we’re making it like that (but it won’t last long).

The Author… is Stan’s brother…

He knew this fact all along, which means he knew exactly what the journals contained and he knew who wrote them! He knew everything and yet he acted dumb about it!

Stan Pines only continues to destroy what little trust you have in him with each passing second! And now _your own sister_ has damaged your trust in her with the fact that she listened to him, a liar, over you, her own twin brother.

But right now you ignore Mabel, since you’re stuck in a state of anger at your so-called great uncle, and fear and awe at the man who is his brother. The latter is looking at you and Mabel, and, to an extent, the unconscious Soos on the ground, before he looks at Stan.

“Stanley.” He says, his voice somewhat gruff, like Stan’s, but different.

“Stanford.” Stan says quietly, looking at his… twin? Holy cow, they look almost identical, except this Stanford guy is way younger looking.

Stanford walks up to Stan, looking at him, before yelling ‘RIGHT HOOK!’ and punches him straight to the cheek with his right fist. Your uncle falls to the ground with a thud, groaning as he rubs his cheek. “You idiot! What did you do!?”  
  
“I brought you back, you asshole!” Stan yelled, not even bothering to cover up his curses. “Took me thirty years to get your sorry ass back into this realm! You should be thanking me!”  
  
“Thirty years? Holy Moses, that long… fuck!” The other older Pines looks ready to punch him again, but instead just ran a hand through his dirty hair. “Stan… uhg, you have no idea what dangers you could have caused with the portal. Fiddleford and you both knew it was unstable when we tried it the last time, you could have torn the very fabric of time and space apart!”  
  
“I know, I know! But I wanted to see your stupid face again instead of seeing it aging in the mirror!”  
  
Stanford just looks at him before sighing deeply. “Right… right, whatever.” He glances back at you and your sister. “You have kids?”  
  
“Technically, those are my great niece and nephew.” You huff at the nephew thing. “And… yours as well, they're Shermie's grandkids.”  
  
Wait…

"I'm an uncle?" Stanford asks, a bit shocked.

You and Mabel are stunned, well, obviously he'd be your uncle, yeah, but still! Why hadn't you been told this before?!  
  
“What the heck is going on!?” Soos exclaims, oh, seems that he woke up, when did he do that?

Stan groans, rubbing at his forehead. “Look, I’ll… we can talk more later, but right now, we really should get out of here, in case this place starts to fall apart or the machine does something.” Stanford pushes past him and goes into the control room, grabbing the two journals that still remained in there. He put them in his jacket like he did with the other one and started messing with the controls.

The strange machine-portal-thing shuts off and the room becomes dark, except for a red light in the control room. After this is taken care of, the five of you head upstairs.

The shack… is a mess. Things are littered all around, there’s broken glass all over the floor, liquid from jars and snow globes is spilt everywhere, the gift shop is ruined.

“The gravity did this.” Stan said, as if to explain the situation. “The same thing happened in 1982, the last time the machine was used at full power.”

His twin glances at him before pulling a flashlight out of a pocket in his jacket to get a better look at the gift shop. “The heck happened to this room?” He asks. “I don’t remember it being like this at all.” He picks up a broken bobble head, looking over at his brother. “Really?”

“I turned the shack into a tourist trap ten years ago to make money for research and the portal. Five years before that, it was a costume shop, heh. And before that, it was just our house.”  
  
“MY house, you free loader. Where’s Fiddleford?”

You notice your uncle go quiet so you speak up, the guy probably doesn’t know everything about the old hillbilly. “McGucket suffered damage to his sanity with a mind eraser gun he built. But we found his memories and they’ve been slowly returning over the past few days.” You explain simply, you’ll probably have to give him the full story later. If you even want to do that.

Stanford frowns and sighs, shaking his head. “The Blind Eye, right?”

“Yes, sir.” Mabel says, being quiet. She won’t look at you; you don’t want to look at her. “We found them in the museum and McGucket helped us take them down. He doesn’t want people to suffer like he did; he doesn’t want their lives ruined. People need to know about what’s going on in town.”

“Especially after what’s happened, dude. Like, the whole town was floatin’ and stuff, no way they’re gonna forget that!” Soos added on.

“In the morning.” Stanford says. “We’ll deal with it in the morning. Right now, there is too much going on and I am so tired…”

\--

Stan has changed my old home so much that it’s sort of messing me up on trying to remember where everything is. His room remains the same, except it’s an even bigger mess than usual, due to everything being knocked around when the gravity failed. The den is somewhat the same, though there’s some new stuff in there.

The kitchen is a mess, probably was even before the lack of physics. I don’t like the gift shop and museum being in my home, but my bedroom is somewhat intact, though it’s also an office for the weird man-child guy, Soos was it? Hm, is he human? Sort of reminds you of a large gopher.

Stan informed me about the kids staying for the summer, saying that if he knew the portal would be finished during their stay, he wouldn’t have had them come over. I’m curious of them, another set of twins in the Pines family, heh, odd but this family is just odd in general.

I haven’t spoken with them much, the boy left quickly, seeming to be troubled. The girl, Mabel, stayed, a bit curious of me. She asked if I was really her other great uncle, I guess I am. I had no idea that Shermie would go off and start a family, the thought never crossed my mind.

My niece, that sounds so weird, told me a little about herself. She’s twelve, owns a pet pig, loves arts and crafts and just being her silly ol’ self. Apparently she is also a congressman thanks to Quentin Trembly. Can’t say I was expecting that last part, but it takes a silly person to find another one. Well I'll be damned, she figured out something I could never do, amazing! I like this kid, she's weird!

She’s sleeping in her room right now, the storage space in the attic. Stan’s cleaning up some of the broken items with Soos, and I’m on the roof of what is now the Mystery Shack. I missed coming up here to think, it’s been so long.

Looking up, I see that the moon is large and the sky is clear, much nicer than the sky of where I had ended up. Uhg, what a horrible place. I shrug off my jacket, setting it aside, hearing the door to the roof move with a squeak. Turning, I make eye contact with my great nephew.

He looks at me before moving to go back down. “Wait, come here.” I say, I want to talk to him. He seems hesitant but climbs up, quietly walking over and sits down next to me. “What’s your name?” I ask and he looks down.

“What do you care?” He sounds so bitter, but it’s not really meant for me.

“Well, I’m curious; I want to know my nephew’s name.”

“I’m not your nephew.” He curls up, sounding upset and lost.

I frown, moving to put a hand on him, but I decide not to. “Well, I think you are. You look like a Pines, heck, you look a bit like me at your age. What are you, twelve, thirteen?” I ask, though I already know his age, I'm just humoring him a little.

“Twelve, I’ll be thirteen at the end of the summer.” Hopefully he will be, but I’m not sure how things will be at that time…

“You’re mad at Stan, aren’t you?”  
  
He turns to look at me; he’s so pissed off and hurt. “Of course I am! He was suppose to be my Grunkle Stan and now I don’t even know if I wanna call him that anymore! He’s nothing but a sack of lies that my own sister trusted over me! Me, her twin brother! How could she do that to me!?” He pauses and looks away again, he sniffles, he’s crying. "Gosh, I sound so awful... I sound like a big jerk." 

“Kid… look, it’s… it’s gonna be hard, okay, for everyone. But right now, you need to understand that they probably had their reasons.”

“I don’t care! You said so yourself, trust no one! And look what happened when I put my trust into someone! They freaking back stab me!”

He reminds me of myself, stubborn and hurt, especially when it was because of... “How did you know I said that?”

“Because I read your journal, the third one.” He sniffles, rubbing his nose on the back of his hand. I reach into my jacket, pulling out the third book, flipping through it to the page that reads ‘TRUST NO ONE’. “I should have listened to you…” He says quietly.

“…” I sigh, closing the journal. “Kid, it is not gonna be an easy time when you’re like this. But you’ll learn to trust them again; after all, you have the rest of your summer to gain their trust.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“It’s up to you to believe me or not. I’ve had thirty years to get forgive Stan and for him to forgive me, but hopefully you’ll only have a few weeks.”

He’s quiet as he looks at the ground. “My name’s Dipper.” He says after a few minutes of silence. “And your name is Stanford?”  
  
I nod, looking at him. “Yes, and I’m apparently your great uncle and you’re my great nephew. Heh, man, I never thought that I’d be an uncle, especially since I sort of lost contact with my family."  
  
"Why's that?"  
  
"Well, I got too caught up in my old little, weird bubble." I wave my hand out at the woods. "Plus, some other stuff, but mostly because of what I was doing here."  
  
Dipper is quietly looking at me before he looks at the book. “I… found your journal, in the woods, during my first week here.”  
  
“You found it in the ground?”  
  
“I was trying to nail a sign to a tree, turns out it was metal with a hatch. I played with the controls and the door in the ground open.”  
  
I chuckle a little, touching the leather spine of the book. “Yeah, I hid it close to the fallout shelter Fiddleford and I designed. Never really got to use it for that, but it was also another lab. We’ve got several hidden around town.”  
  
“I’ve been to the fallout shelter. It was… not fun. I almost died a few times! And then there was the monster…”  
  
“The Shape Shifter.” You both say at the same time. I frown, looking at him again before sighing. “The beast hates me greatly, he can’t escape from there, hasn’t figured it out yet.”  
  
“He’s frozen, looking like me in a state of terror.”

I twitch, how many times has that bastard showed me what I would look like when I die? Sighing, I put my hand on my journal, tracing the hand with a finger. Dipper watches quietly. “You have six fingers." He speaks up, sounds fascinated, he must have just noticed.  
  
“Yeah, birth defect. Stan was the better twin, Mom's favorite, always taller by a millimeter, has perfect hands.”  
  
“Mabel’s the same, but we have the same hands.”  
  
For the first time, I notice that my grandson has four fingers on each hand. How did I not see this before? Oh, right, I was pissed at Stanley for bringing me back during a time when Bill would be starting his attack on humanity, and for turning my house into a damn tourist trap.

Taking Dipper’s hand, I look at it. It looks normal, just missing the pinky finger. I’ve got two of them, heh. “Must be genetic or something.”  
  
“Dad and Mom have five.”  
  
“Yeah, so do Stan and your grandpa. Looks like you and Mabel got the delayed Pine’s genes, you look a lot like Lee and I.”  
  
“How come you’re calling Stan Lee?”

“Eh, force of habit. Stan or Lee, he just called me Stanford, Ford, and more often then not, Poindexter.” I grumble and Dipper laughs a little.  
  
He smiles at me a little as well. “Yeah, but that’s the trouble with having a sibling, they always have some sorta name for you. Mabel calls me Little Dipper sometimes, I hate it.”

It’s strange how much I see of myself in this kid, and I’ve only known him for a few hours, hell, this is the first conversation I’ve had with him. Smiling, I put a hand on his back, only to frown when I sense something off in the air. There are sirens going off in the distance, and they’re closing in.

“The police? What’s going on?” I ask, looking at the boy for answers.  
  
“Well… Stan got arrested earlier today, for stealing government nuclear waste.”  
  
“Damnit Stan!” I get up and jump off the roof, hearing Dipper go ‘whoa’ at the action. Storming inside, I find Stan and his assistant putting things on shelves. “Stanley Pines! You STOLE nuclear waste?!”  
  
My twin twitches at the exclamation before rolling his eyes, sighing loudly in annoyance. “I needed fuel for the machine and I sure as hell couldn’t ask the nerd where he got his supply from thirty years ago, cause to ask a madman where to get nuclear waste is pretty fucking crazy.”  
  
“Still though! The police are on their way here for your sorry, old ass!”  
  
“Look, I’ll talk to them, explain everything…”  
  
“You can’t do that! What we were doing thirty years ago is just as illegal and inhumane as what you did now! And I would really like to not have my research ruined by the fucking police and FBI! And Fiddleford, oh man, what about him!? Is he in on this project of yours?!”  
  
Stan shakes his head. “No, I didn’t involve McGucket in this as at all. It wasn’t until about a few days ago that he even started actin’ sane again, apparently. And considerin’ that we’re the ones who made him erase his brain to the point that he became a hillbilly living in the dump, I really didn’t want to have him become even more damaged. And he’s pretty damaged enough as it is.”  
  
I feel a twang of guilt at hearing that. Well… at least he’s starting to return to normal, sorta. I’ll probably have to talk to him when this police business gets settled. The sirens are louder now and Dipper has appeared in the gift shop, having come down from the ladder in the room, right, I forgot that was there.

Mabel runs into the room, looking a bit startled. “What’s going on, is it another raid?”

“Soos, take the kids to your place.” Stan tells the baby-man. “Ford and I’ve got this handled.”  
  
“But Mr. Pines, this is straight up serious, dude! What if they catch us on the way out?!” Soos exclaims, looking at my twin with uncertainty.  
  
“Go out the back, they’ve got only the front occupied.” Lee replies, slipping on his brass knuckles. Great, that’ll _totally_ help us. “Mabel, Dipper, stay with Soos, don’t come back until morning. If we’re not here… well, shoot, I really screwed up this time.”  
  
“But Grunkle Stan..!” Mabel grabs his jacket, looking up at him. I notice that Dipper frowns and grabs the third journal from you.  
  
“No buts, sweetie. Me and Lee have some business to take care of.”  
  
Mabel looks at him before nodding, giving him a hug, I receive one as well, and she runs out of the room.

“Guys, I can help you with this.” Dipper says. “I have something that can-!”  
  
“Dipper, just go with your sister and Soos, you don’t need to be troubled by me right now.” Stanley tells him. “And that journal doesn’t have anything in it that can help right now.”  
  
“But…” The younger boy starts before he sighs. “Come on, Soos.” He grumbles, exiting with Soos to the back.

I can hear a door close from another part of the house before I turn to Stanford. “You gonna lie to the cops?”  
  
“You know I am. I’ve got this.” He walks up to the door, opening it with ease. There are police out front and a man in a black suit, looking really pissed off. “Officers, allow me to explain.”  
  
“You’re under arrest for escaping incarceration and for stealing nuclear waste, plus all the other criminal charges we’ve got paperwork to do for.” The man in the suit says, holding up a gun at my twin.  
  
“Hey, hey, hold up, you just assume that I stole nuclear waste. Did ya even bother to check my property for that junk? Ya just stormed the place and arrested me! You didn’t even bother to look!”  
  
“We will find evidence, Mr. Pines.”  
  
“Check my house and the security tapes for the night in question and you’ll see I’m innocent.”  
  
The FBI-looking agent glares and turns to the police, telling them to search the premises. Stan is still a skillful liar, at least to Americans, the Colombians saw right through him. I step outside and the agent turns his attention to me.  
  
“Who is this?”  
  
Stan frowns and looks at me. “This is my cousin Lee, he needed a place to stay and, hey, family’s a big thing for me.” He shrugs, slyly smiling.  
  
I roll my eyes, looking at my brother and the man in the suit. “Why are you dressed like that?” He asks me.  
  
“This is what I wear when I go urban exploring, I tend to take the part seriously.” I lie; Stanley’s not the only one in this family that’s got a talent for it. “I heard that there was a bunch of interesting thing to take pictures of out here in this part of Oregon and I got a little lost.”

He just looks at you with a hard stare, I’m not affected, I’ve stared a dream demon directly in the eye without flinching, and he could easily drop me where I stood. 

The agent gives you two one more look before stepping inside. Luckily for you guys the vending machine door that hides the lab is still in place, the snacks are just all over the bottom and the light inside is broken. They’ll never suspect that it leads to my lab.

The police look all over the mess of a house for twenty minutes before they give up on looking for the nuclear waste. Even if they did find it, it’s most likely used up. The portal burns so much energy, it’s ridiculous. 

“Sir, we found the security tapes.” One of the police officers says and shows the agent to Stan’s office. Stan and I watch them put the tape in and it shows the gift shop before the tape gives out. They pop the tape out and you can see that the case is badly damaged from the lack of gravity hours before. Stan lets out a sigh of relief next to me, the evidence, if there was any on the tape, has been erased.

“Hmm…” The agent frowns and turns to you two. “You’re clear of these charges, but you’re still in trouble for escaping.”  
  
Stanley walks over to a desk and pulls out a wad of cash. “Here’s the usual bail for that, and the community service is usually forty hours, I can do it.” He drops the money in the other man’s hand, making him raise an eyebrow. “This isn’t the first time, believe me.”

The agent narrows his eyes. “We’ll be keeping a close eye on you, there will be a ton of paper work on this, and a court hearing.”  
  
“I’m free Fridays at two and at four on Saturdays.” Stan says casually.

\--

You and your sister stayed with Soos for the night, coming back in the early morning, just as the sun was rising. The ride was silent, except for the sound of some song playing on Soos’ radio.

Mabel keeps glancing at you, but you’re doing your best to ignore her, clinging tightly to your journal. You don't mean to be mean, but you want to talk to her in private, not with your uncles or Soos around. Soos parks in front of the shack, there are no signs of the police, but you can clearly see how damaged the place is. This’ll take a while to fix up again…

Getting out, the three of you walk up to the front door, finding it unlocked. You step in first and quietly look around. It’s still a mess, but it looks a little cleaner. Stanford is awake, sitting at the table in the den. He looks up and gives a tired wave. “Morning.”

“Hi Grunkle Stanford!” Mabel happily greets him, running over. “Is Grunkle Stan here?”  
  
“He’s sleeping, stayed up most of the night talking to me and trying to clean this place up.” Stanford replies before looking at you and Soos. “I’m hungry, think we can find something to eat in here?”  
  
Glancing at the kitchen, you’re gonna have to say… “No, I don’t think a lot of the food made it.”  
  
“Dang, well, let’s go to Greasy’s, is that place still open?” He asks, standing up.  
  
“Oh yeah, dude! It’s still open and stuff, pancakes sound great, now that I think about it.” Soos grins. “Should we get Mr. Pines?”  
  
“Nah, let him sleep.” Your new uncle replies, shaking his head. Good, you don’t really wanna deal with Stan right now. “Think they’ll take my money? It’s from the eighties and stuff, but I’ve got a wallet full of it.”  
  
Mabel shrugs. “Maybe, haha, Lazy Suzan won’t care! Let me go get changed, I’m not going in my pajamas!” She happily ran upstairs. Stanford looks over at you now.  
  
“You need to get dressed or anything, Dipper?”  
  
You shake your head. “No, I’m okay in what I’m wearing.” You walk over to him. “Hey, uh, later, do you think we could talk about my-your journal? And the other two?” You hold up the third one, you're actually super excited to talk about the journals! This is the guy who wrote them, now that the effects of last night as staring to wear off, you're totally wanting to fanboy about the journals!  
  
He quietly takes it from you and nods. “Yeah, we can talk about them.”  
  
“Hey, uh, other Mr. Pines?” Soos speaks up, catching Stanford’s attention. “Do you think you should go out in what you’re wearin’? That outfits cool and junk, but it’s also so… like, futuristic and stuff, people might freak.”  
  
Stanford looks himself over and shrugs. “I’m sure I’ve got some old clothes around here somewhere.”

“There’re clothes in the attic, Stan just left boxes of the stuff up there.” You tell him and he nods, heading up to the attic. A moment later you hear a loud, girly scream and your uncle walks down, looking a bit startled. “You walked in on Mabel changing, didn’t you?”  
  
He simply nods. “She was just picking out a sweater, I dunno why she screamed.”

Mabel comes down, looking embarrassed. She doesn’t like people walking in on her when she’s picking out sweaters, you mess up her groove of things when you do. You go up there with your uncle and show him the boxes. He quietly digs through them before changing out of his clothes, which you leave the attic during.

Stanford comes down, dressed in a red sweater and pants, along with a trench coat. He looks less like a dystopian warrior and more like a normal guy now. “Ready to go?” Mabel asks, over her embarrassment. He nods and the four of you head to the truck. You’re in the back with Mabel again while Stanley sits up front with Soos. 

Stanford seems a little jumpy as Soos drives, glancing out the window. “A lot has changed…”  
  
“Well, it’s been thirty years.” You tell him and he frowns a bit. Soos gets to Greasy’s and you notice that though the place is a little lopsided, it’s still open! Well, there are lots of hungry people in this town, especially people who have been thrown about from the lack of gravity.

The four of you step inside and no one really pays you much attention as you take a seat. Stanford is even more jumpy now, looking at people. “I remember some of these older folks, but there are so many new faces…” He says quietly, trying to hide his face with a menu.  
  
“It’s okay, man, no one will say anything.” You tell him as Lazy Suzan approaches.  
  
“Mornin’!” She greets you all happily. “Crazy night we had last night, right?”

“Yeah!” Mabel laughs a bit, trying to shrug it off.  
  
“So, what’ll you all be havin’ this morning?” The waitress asks. Mabel wants waffles, Soos the breakfast special, you want bacon and eggs.  
  
“And what about you?” She asks, looking at Stanford, who is still trying to hide his face.  
  
“Pancakes and coffee.” He replies simply.  
  
Lazy Suzan blinks her one good eye. “Speak up again, hun, you mumbled.”  
  
He sighs and lowers the menu. “I would like pancakes and coffee.” He tells her straight up. Lazy Susan opens her other eye, staring at him.  
  
“You look kinda familiar…”  
  
“I get that a lot.” He shrugs. She blinks and shrugs as well, taking his order before heading to the kitchen. “She was working here when I was still in Gravity Falls. She aged… well, I suppose.”

“She looks good for her age, whatever it is.” Mabel snorts.  
  
Your food arrives and you quietly eat. You want to ask Stanford about the other side of the portal, but you feel like now is not the best time for such a traumatic experience. So you decide to just glance out the window.

A bush nearby wiggles about and you watch as Old Man McGucket stumbles out, clinging to a bag under one arm and the laptop under the other. “Hey, what’s McGucket doing?” Soos asks, having looked out the window to. Suddenly the table shakes as Stanford stands right, staring at the old man.

“Grunkle Stanford, where are you going?” Mabel calls out as Stanford storms out of the diner. You watch out the window at he walks up to the distracted, frightened man.

Opening the window, you call out to the aging inventor. “McGucket! Watch out!” You warn him just as your uncle approaches him.

McGucket turns and gasped, dropping the bag, but clings to the laptop. “It… It can’t be..!”  
  
Your uncle clenches his fists and you hear him say ‘Fiddleford’ in a low tone. He reaches for him. The old man screams and runs, your uncle chases him.

“Stay here, I’m gonna go help!” You say, jumping out the window, ignoring Soos and Mabel’s cries for you to stop.

They’re fast, but you’re a kid, you’ve got more energy. You find them in a small clearing in the forest, McGucket has his back pressed up against a tree, looking so scared, but also relieved at seeing the other man. Stanford is slowly approaching him. “S-Stanford, please, don’t hurt me..! I made my mistakes, and I tried to run from them, I stopped using the gun so long ago..!”  
  
“Fiddleford.” He stops in front of the hillbilly and you gasp when he throws his hand out, looking to slap him. But instead, he throws his arm around the old man, pulling him to his chest. “Damnit Doc… I missed you.” He mumbles, leaving you and McGucket confused.

Then he tosses him to the ground.  
  
“Hey!” You frown, rushing over to your fallen friend. He sits up, looking a bit dizzy from the sudden toss.

“Fiddleford! How could you destroy your mind like that!? Was our work that much of a strain on you!?” Your uncle yells.

McGucket looks at him and sighs softly. “Stanford, my ol’ friend, I have much to talk to you about but… how are you here?! T-the portal and _he_ was there…!”

“Shhh.” He put a hand to the old man’s face. “We’ll talk later, come on, we’re having pancakes and Lazy Suzan gave me too many. You look like you could use some good food.”  
  
The hillbilly looks at his old partner and nods, taking his hand, the two headed back to the diner. You frown, following behind, what do they need to talk about?

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t have it in me to have Stanford punch McGucket. He can punch Stan though, guy totally deserves it. This went on way longer than it should have and I know that the scene with Agent Powers isn’t how that would really work, but work with me here.


End file.
